


You Take Me by the Heart When You Take Me by the Hand

by wutthequiznack (birbsandemidogs04)



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: 5+1 Things, First Kiss, Fluff, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-06
Updated: 2018-10-06
Packaged: 2019-07-25 23:24:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,564
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16207853
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/birbsandemidogs04/pseuds/wutthequiznack
Summary: 5 times Lance dreamed of holding someone's hand, and once it actually came true.





	You Take Me by the Heart When You Take Me by the Hand

Growing up, love was all around Lance. In a house full of five kids including himself and two parents who were still together, he couldn't ever avoid it. Love was a concept he was privileged to constantly bear witness to -- his parents were constantly embracing and were proud to do it before their children, demonstrating their love for each other in a way Lance grew accustomed to, watched with innocent, fascinated eyes reflecting a watery projection of a functional relationship. In fact, Lance was the only one of his siblings to not be exaggerated disgusted with their parents' public displays of affection. Though somehow the other kids understood it wasn't a creepy thing, or something that was wrong with Lance, it was simply his as of yet untainted idea of what a beautiful romantic relationship could be, something he would later aspire to have.

As Lance grew older, so did his siblings. His brother Luis was the first to marry, but prior to this, in his preteens before the Garrison, Lance would often come home from public school to find Lisa and Luis holding hands on a couch or washing dishes together -- and he would almost regret having stepped into the scene. For a few seconds before they noticed he was there, Lance would see such love in the couples' eyes -- soft smiles and stuff he'd see in telenovelas. But it was all there. Lance was glad to see Luis marry Lisa and even more thrilled when they had their first baby, a son, making Lance an Uncle.

Afterwards, each of Lance's siblings would date people on and off, which he for the life of him couldn't understand. How could you date someone, share your life with them and fall in love with them, and then break it all off? Lance's Mamà would laugh and call him a _romántico incurable_ , a hopeless romantic. But Lance saw it a different way. Love, as he had seen it, was such a sacred and delicate thing. It was something that had to be nurtured and protected. It was full of firsts and laughter and raw, overpowering feelings, and this, Lance decided, ought to be special. He wasn't a hopeless romantic. He was a _hopeful_ romantic. He was hopeful that one day, he'd get to experience his firsts with someone else. That he'd get to have what he'd seen Luis and Lisa and his parents share. Maybe one day somebody would look at him and his significant other and see that shine of love in his eyes for the other person that he'd seen so much.

The flirting started not-so-seriously. If Lance had to analyze it, put it into his head and really think about it, he'd say it started as crushes that never worked out, and progressed as a result of his impatience to start his own path to love. Yeah, people always said _Patience is virtue_ and _good things come to those who wait_ , but that was never Lance's thing. Waiting. Maybe it was because as the baby of his siblings, he'd never had to wait, or just because he wanted love so badly, more than anyone else.

At the Garrison, away from his family, he became girl-obsessed. Hunk balanced him out -- where Lance was flirty and impatient, Hunk was sweet and scared stiff. Hunk, too, had come from a big family where love was a tangible thing -- he'd laughed once, calling it _the Force,_ which was from some super old sci-fi movie about space that proved to be only sorta right. Lance had seen it, and where many of his friends had talked for hours about the action sequences, Lance couldn't get over Leia and Han's raw chemistry. Lance had caught himself staring at their intertwined hands on the screen and sinking back into hoping one day he'd get that. Not a doomed love on a spacecraft with a cryopod and a robot, but just _Love_.

But Hunk had caught on to Leia and Han too, and though he wasn't as into discussing how perfect their relationship was as Lance was, he nodded and smiled and Lance knew he _got_ it. Not like the others. Others would give him a shaky smile and a creeped-out grimace because they didn't understand, they didn't get it, they hadn't been surrounded by Love their whole lives and want it for themselves as badly as Lance did. They mistook it for some nasty, watered down component to Love, a physical thing, whereas Lance's interpretation was purer. It was just a pure desire to have Love. That was it. Hunk got this.

"Yeah, I admired Leia and Han too," he'd said when Lance had brought it up. "I always liked how much they loved each other, that they kind of built up to that but then they just wanted to be together forever."

But real Love wasn't like it was in the movies.

Lance admired plenty of girls at the Garrison and flirted with a considerable amount, but this went nowhere. He did it so often he started to consider it a fun pastime, when really all it was doing was reminding him of just how far from achieving Love he was. And when it boiled down to it, he was utterly unprepared for any return advances made by the girls.

Sometimes he wished he could be like the brains of their group, Pidge. Pidge was always so uninterested in going to get pizza or hanging out and flirting with girls -- it was like he was focused on doing something else entirely and he didn't have time for distractions. Later Lance would learn that this was actually very true because Pidge was a girl named Katie and she was conducting an illegal investigation to find her family, but at the Garrison Lance had admired Pidge's tenacity. Pidge would get called cute and everything and brush it off, focus on work and other things and not worry about Love. Lance would also learn that Love was not even a thing to Pidge, that she couldn't care less if she ends up with somebody, that she's not interested. Would it be easier to live that way? Or at least would it be easier to forget about Love and let it come to him?

No, that would be harder.

Becoming a paladin opened up Lance's spectrum of girls to talk to -- there was now an "Alien girls" category. This kind of made him both more hopeful and hopeless. Alien girls entertained him, but it was silly, really. Lance didn't really think. He just rushed into it. If he really took the time to think, like Hunk, he could ask himself whether he'd realistically be able to spend his life with an alien. He'd probably die way before them.

Such was the case with his pursuit of Princess Allura. When she fell into his arms, Lance's first thought was to picture her hands in his. He'd fallen in love.

Was it _Love_? He didn't know. But it was definitely love.

It hurt every time she rejected him, and he knew the whole time that these were clear indications that she didn't like him, but he kept at it. He didn't know why. Maybe it was because he was really in love and he didn't want to let go, maybe he believed there was a chance at Love.

Allura was pretty. Nay, she was beautiful. So of course, Lotor would swoop in and be able to win her hand. Of course. That just confirmed Lance's fears. He could picture in his head so clearly what himself and Allura'd look like as a couple, holding hands with those looks of Love in their eyes. He would have been happy to continue stupidly believing it could happen. But after Lotor did what he did, that image faded and became distorted and withered away, and Lance was left with love but not Love and so he started to accept moving on.

The biggest surprise to Lance was finding he had feelings for Keith. That was a surprise because he'd had them all along.

It was like standing on the edge of a cliff. You're comfortable at some point standing up there, but there's that nagging voice at the back of your head that says you're going to fall off, and when you fall it's both a shock and not at all.

Lance had little moments with Keith where he'd caught his heart pounding like it did around girls -- it was like falling in love with Keith had happened gradually. Or maybe he'd fallen in love at the beginning and then those moments afterwards were just fuel to the fire. In any case, Lance remembered all the times he'd caught a glimpse of Keith and gotten an intrusive picture of the two of them in his brain, holding hands with that Love on their faces.

He remembered holding Keith's hand and telling him, his heart pounding in his ears that they are a good team.

Throwing those space spores at him and watching his expression go from sulky to gleeful as he tossed some back.

Touching his shoulder when he told him he should accept the Black Lion's decision.

Turning back to see him glowing after their pep talk, reminding him to "Leave the math to Pidge".

Barely touching him in that group hug and holding back.

Watching him come back and feeling a burst in his chest.

At the point where Keith came back with his mother, Lance started to realize these feelings were more than something he could brush off. He'd expected himself to be annoyed with yet another crush he couldn't be with, but instead his hopefulness returned and he became more in love than ever. Conscious of this, he'd almost completely stopped Keith from going after Acxa and risking his own life, which was something they were all always doing anyway, and he'd stared after him, heart crippled.

Then he'd laid it on thick at Bob's gameshow, choosing Keith to escape so he could have a chance. The fact that Keith chose him too gave him hope. Foolish hope, maybe, but why did Keith choose him as opposed to anyone else?

After their whole near-death experience, Lance sat up in his hospital bed, visited often by his family, and thought about Keith. He needed an excuse to go and talk to him -- about what, he didn't know. It wasn't like he could go and blurt out that he loved him.

Then he remembered -- those stupid fingerless gloves.

They'd been packing to leave to Earth, and Lance had brought Keith's fingerless gloves. He'd figured at the time that Keith would need them or want them, at least. They were pretty frayed at the edges and worn but they were still good. Keith would still look good in them.

One of those days, he got up from his bed and trudged over to the room next door. He knew Keith was in there because Veronica had told him. She was the real MVP sometimes.

First he knocked on the depressing looking door. It was monochrome, the same colour as the hallway walls and the room walls. It was hideous. Lance felt his nerves start to set in. He hoped to quiznak that Keith was alone in there.

"Yeah?" a scratchy voice asked, and it took Lance a second to realize it was Keith.

"Uh, it's me. Lance." Lance replied helplessly.

Keith barely waited a second before telling him to come in.

Lance opened the door and almost fell into the room. He was relieved to see that Krolia and Kolivan were not present. "Did, uh, did they get a coffee or something?" Lance asked jokingly.

Keith grinned. It struck Lance to see how fond it was. "My mom doesn't like coffee, but maybe Kolivan does."

Lance looked at Keith a little longer before clearing his throat, moving to sit on the end of his bed. "Can I sit?"

"Sure," Keith nodded. "What's going on?"

He had a bandage wrapped around his head, but Lance could still see how shiny his hair was and how long it was getting. He smiled in spite of himself and his nerves dissipated. "I, uh, I have something of yours from the castle ship. Thought you might want it back."

He reached behind his back and pulled away the fingerless gloves, observing the way Keith's face lit up. "I thought I lost these." he said, taking them.

Lance watched as he began to slip them on. The black looked beautiful against his pale skin. "I got them. Didn't think you'd want them blown up, so."

Keith looked back up at Lance and tilted his head, before breaking out into the most beautiful smile Lance had ever seen. It surprised him and moved him to see the Love shining in Keith's purple irises. "Thanks, Lance."

Lance's cheeks heated up.

\--

Later Shiro pulled him aside and talking ensued. Lance ended up pouring out his heart to Shiro. There was something about talking to him that always made Lance feel heard. Shiro, like Hunk, would nod and take everything in and then offer stellar advice. This time, he didn't offer advice, but a story.

He told Lance about his own experience with Love -- with his fiancé Adam.

"Adam was the best thing that ever happened to me," Shiro told him, "I was so in love, and I still am. I can remember everything we did, everything we promised each other… Lance, your first proper Love, someone who will love you back tenfold and will be who you deserve, your never forget them. And when you get that person, hold onto them. Make sure you don't let them slip away."

Lance had a feeling at that moment that Shiro know more about him than he let on.

\--

They're walking.

Keith is in front of Lance and Allura is behind, holding her helmet and looking up, her hair beautiful around her shoulders. Keith is in his peripheral, his glossy black mullet shining and bouncing in its own right. Lance wishes he could run his fingers through it right this moment. The tangles would probably pull apart like cotton candy.

Lance is in love. He knows it. And he's okay with it.

When Keith's hand bumps into his, he thinks it's an accident at first.

But then Keith intertwines their fingers and holds his hand tight, like a tether to himself, his thumb brushing over Lance's knuckles and Lance is suddenly in Love.  
  
Keith turning around to look at him only confirms this.

And then, only a day later, when Keith is injured in battle and so is Lance but Lance can walk and he collapses next to Keith, desperate, only to see Keith's eyes flutter open, Lance's Love blooms even more.

Blindly he grabs Keith's face and brings it to his own and uses no expertise in tasting Keith's lips. They taste like soot and war and sadness -- they're tart, but also salty and sweet and warm and soft. There's a hint of lemon, too, which Lance can especially taste when Keith's hands come to life and he grabs Lance's and deepens the kiss, opening his mouth almost ravenously seeking warmth and touch and Lance cries, he's found the Love he always wanted.  
  
Hell, did it take a long time, but hell, was it ever worth it. 

**Author's Note:**

> Oof, based on that poster we got :)
> 
> \-- it is here: https://mysticaleggo.tumblr.com/post/178777425137/id-like-to-point-out-that-if-u-look-at-allura


End file.
